MARY'S INTERCESSION

Though she enjoys the glory of heaven, the Virgin Mary is still lovingly concerned with the struggles of Christ's Body on earth. So she constantly prays for our needs with a mother's love.

How This Teaching Exalts Christ

Mary's intercession is entirely dependent on Jesus' role as the great Mediator (I Timothy 2:5). He is the One Way to the Father (John 14:6), all prayers to the Father must go through Him. Mary's prayers are no exception; she, too, prays to the Father in Jesus' Name.

Biblical Basis

We see a biblical example of Mary's intercession at the Wedding Feast in Cana (John 2:1-11). Mary notices that the couple has run out of wine, so she asks Jesus to help them (vs 2). Jesus agrees to do it, only He wants to keep it quiet because it is not yet time for Him to manifest Himself as Messiah (vs. 4). So she tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to (vs 5), and He performs the miracle. Jesus helped that young couple because His Mother interceded for them! As she did on earth, she continues to do in heaven, and if He listened to her then, surely He will listen to her requests now.

Belief that the saints in heaven intercede for us is biblical! The Book of Revelation portrays the twenty-four elders as offering our prayers to God like incense (Revelation 5:8). Those who sleep in Christ are still members of His Body, as are we. So we can ask them to pray for us the same way we would ask a fellow Christian on earth to pray for us.

Mary, of course, is a resurrected saint, as we saw in the article on the Assumption. She, too, is a member of the Body of Christ, so she, too, offers our prayers before the Throne of Grace.

Early Christian Witness

"And whereas Eve had disobeyed God, Mary was
persuaded to obey God, that the Virgin Mary might become advocate (advocata) of the virgin Eve"
(St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5:19:1).

"The Lord said to his mother, 'Let your heart rejoice and be glad, for every favor and every gift has been given to you from my Father in heaven and from me and from the Holy Spirit. Every soul that calls upon your name shall not be ashamed, but shall find mercy and comfort and support and confidence, both in the world that now is and in that which is to come, in the presence of my Father in the heavens'" (John the Theologian, The Falling Asleep of Mary; 400 AD).

"Hail you who acceptably intercede as a Mediatrix for mankind." (Antipater of Bostra, AD 431)

Objections

The Wedding at Cana does not prove Mary's intercession; she asked for something that Jesus did not want to give.

If He did not want to give it then why did He perform the miracle? He is the Sovereign Lord God; He does not have to answer any request which is against His will. Obviously, His words to Mary did not indicate a rejection of her request, and she, knowing Him very well, understood that.

Why do you Catholics call Mary "Mediatrix" (Mediator).

First of all, the Church has not officially declared this terminology as an article of faith. Second, Mary's "mediatorship" is different from Jesus'. Jesus is the Mediator of our salvation; He is the One Way to the Father, by whose death we may approach God and gain salvation. Mary is a "Mediatrix of intercession", that is, she "mediates" by praying for us, not by saving us and giving us access to the Father. He is the Savior, she a mere intercessor. That's the difference between them.

Mary can't be a Mediatrix because the Bible states that there is only one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ (I Ti 2:5).

Read that verse in context: "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all" (I Timothy 2:5-6). As stated above, Jesus is the one Mediator of our salvation, our only Savior. But He is not our only intercessor, as the verses which come before indicate.

In I Timothy 2:1-4, Paul writes that Christians should pray for all men, especially rulers, so that they may be saved. He is telling them to act as intercessors. But their intercession is not independent of Christ the Mediator, for they have access to the Father only by His death. Apart from Him all intercession would be futile, including Mary's! So Jesus' Mediatorship of salvation does not rule out Mary's intercession, but is the very reason for its efficacy.

Then in what capacity is Mary a "Mediatrix"?

As a fellow Christian, she has access to the throne of grace by Jesus Christ, and there intercedes for us. As our heavenly Mother she cares about us and prays for our needs (as any devout mother would pray for her children). As the Heavenly Gebirah she can make requests of the King of kings, for that was one of the roles of the queen-mother in the Davidic dynasty.

But Solomon refused his mother's bidding (I Kings 2:20-23).

Both Bathsheba and Solomon were fallible human beings; she made a request which he did not wish to grant, and he essentially broke his word that he would give her anything she asked (I Kings 2:20). This is not so with Jesus and Mary; for Jesus is God and Mary, though a creature, is completely submissive to the will of God. So she never asks for anything which is against His will and Jesus never refuses her any request.

Jesus never refuses Mary any request? How can you Catholics believe that?!?!

Based on biblical principles! The Bible says that sin in our lives can hinder our prayers (James 4:3; I Peter 3:7), and that the prayers of the righteous are very effectual (James 5:16). Since Mary is utterly sinless, her prayers would therefore have the greatest effect. Also, the Bible says that if we ask according to God's will He hears us and we can know that we will receive it (I John 5:14-15). Since Mary only wants God's will to be done (Luke 1:38), she only prays according to His will, and so always receives everything she asks for.

How does she know God's will?

She is in heaven. Those in heaven see God's will and plan more clearly than we do.

How can Mary hear all those millions of prayers offered to her from all over the world?

Heaven is not like earth. Here our knowledge and attention span is severely limited, largely because our souls are limited by their connection to our lowly, physical bodies. However, the saints are disembodied spirits and Mary has a glorified, spiritual body which does not limit her soul as a physical body would. Thus they are able to see and know more than we can.

You must believe that Mary is omniscient like God, for she would have to be in order to hear all those prayers.

Not necessarily. Even if everyone in the world prayed to her at once, that would only be a finite number of prayers, and one does not need infinite knowledge to hear a finite number of prayers. God certainly can enable her to hear them without her becoming omniscient.

But Catholics pray to her in so many different languages; how can she understand them all?

Perhaps the Holy Spirit gives Mary the gift of interpretation of tongues (I Co 12:10). Though we do not know exactly how God helps her accomplish this, we know that He can do it, for nothing is impossible with Him.

Mary cannot hear our prayers or pray for us because she is dead and "the dead know nothing" (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

AS we saw in a previous article, Mary is not dead; she was raptured into heaven body and soul. The text you cite comes from the Old Testament; Jesus had not yet come and the souls of the righteous dead reposed in Abraham's bosom. Since the Resurrection, however, the righteous are with the Lord in heaven (2 Co 5:8; Phil 1:22). The Bible reveals that they are quite conscious of earthly events (Rev 6:9-11) and perform an intercessory role by offering our prayers to God (Rev 5:8).

Those who sleep in Christ are still members of His Body, and since His Body is not divided by death, we still have communion with them. The Bible indicates that members of the Church have fellowship not only with God the Father and Jesus Christ, but with "an innumerable company of angels" and "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hb 12:22-24).

God's does not allow the saints to know what's happening on earth lest we honor them too much.

The Bible never says that. It is a tradition of men fabricated as an excuse to ignore Mary and the saints. The early Church clearly believed, that saints could hear our prayers and intercede for us, as is evident from graffiti carved into the tombs of martyrs. I would rather believe as the early Christians did than embrace a doctrine made up about five hundred years ago!

You Catholics think you can bypass Jesus by asking Mary.

No, we ask Mary to ask Jesus for what we need, even as Protestants may ask their pastor or friend to "pray for them". Mary's intercession for us is like that of Christians on earth. She is essentially a "prayer warrior"--the greatest prayer warrior, for she intercedes for everyone in the world.

Catholics pray to Mary because they fear Jesus as a stern Judge or think that God won't listen to their prayers because of their sins.

Some Catholics may think that, even as some Evangelicals love Jesus but fear God the Father because of bad experiences with their earthly father. Both are wrong. The Church officially teaches that we should pray to Mary because she is our Mother who loves and prays for us, not because God is too scary to approach. Mary and the saints make wonderful prayer partners who can agree with us in prayer before the Father.

Prayer to Mary and the saints detracts from time we could use to pray to God.

We could say the same of many other daily pursuits. Saint Paul says we should "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17); if we could learn to keep God in mind at all times, then conversation with other people (on earth or in heaven!) would not detract from prayer to God.

If I can go straight to God, I don't need Mary.

That is like saying "As long as I can talk to my human father I can ignore the rest of my family". The Church is a family, a body; we all need one another: "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you" (I Co 12:21).

Whether you realize it or not, you need Mary! She is part of the Body of Christ, and has a role to play for the benefit of the whole Body - including you!